A detail of what running in Detroit means to chummers like you.

---

Detroit - The Motor City Run by Damien Knight
-kN0x

"I own this city. My technology built it, my will keeps it going, and two-thirds of the citizens work for me whether they know it or not."

Quick survey? Is that Lex Luthor talking about Metropolis or Damien Knight talking about Detroit? Trick question of course, neither said it (at least not openly) but it's definitely true in Knight's case. Ares is the top dog in Motor City, bar none. You compile a list of the top ten corps in Detroit and they are all Ares under the hood.

Technically he doesn't own the city outright. Don't laugh but there actually is a local government and, I swear to god, an elected mayor of the city.

Buuuut (and that's a big thicc-ass but) Ares runs Detroit. Thanks to extraterritoritality (is that even a word?) Ares owns the majority of Detroit as private property, the vast majority of its tax revenue comes through Ares and its subsidiaries and the vast majority of the UCAS citizens in Detroit work and support Ares, one way or another. The mayor may as well be a puppet given how Damien's got his hand right on up there working the mouth and arms however he wants. Calling the Mayor of a Detroit a rubber stamp figurehead is giving him too much credit.

Anyway in theory there are checks and balances. Damien Knight answers to the board, Detroit is technically part of UCAS and blah blah blah but you're not here for the propoganda, you're here for the real deal, and I'm here to finally prove my worth to Bull and the other old guard of Jackpoint here that I deserve to be taken seriously.

• Yeah we'll take you seriously when you post serious paydata instead of just rehashing Squire's old report.
  - Slamm-O!
  
  
• Go eat a frag grenade
  - kN0x

---

Detroit Rock History
-kN0x

Wake up everyone, it's time for everyone's favorite bit of info, the history dump. Because nothing screams relevant like learning about drek that happened fifty years ago.

• Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it
  - Snopes
  
• Come on, let the kid finish. We can rip him apart afterwards.
  - Turbo Bunny

Back at the turn of the 21st Century Detroit was a dying city. Record amounts of crime, homelessness, unemployment, drug use yadda yadda yadda. In its heyday it was the car manufacturing capital of the world but by a hundred years ago, not so much.

Eventually some business types split away from General Motors to found Ares Industries and while the rest of the corporate world was playing the emergence of magic and stuff conservatively, Ares pounced on new opportunities and grew by leaps and bounds. They purchased NASA from the failing USA for cheap and became a leader in aerospace overnight. They branched out and by the 2030s was one of the top five corpos in the world. Everyone knows the story of the nanosecond buyout in 2033 when in a blip of an eye Damien Knight suddenly held 22% of Ares stock. When that dragon Dunkelnuts became president for a day, Damien Knight was right by his side.

• Dunkelzahn, show some respect.
  - Winterhawk

Ares became the go-to for UCAS and powered by Ares, Detroit turned itself around. It was doing...okay...until it got a real shot in the arm in 2055 when Chicago when bugs-up. This was critical because not only was Ares on the front lines to contain the bug outbreak but many of the Chicago refugees got routed to Detroit. I'm sure Ares picked up a big fat government check for its magnanimous gesture but this created an interesting point in Detroit history. Up until this time everyone in Detroit basically worshipped Ares. An entire generation had grown up watching Ares almost single-handedly turn a dying city into a beacon of prosperity and almost everyone was sucking that Ares kool-aide down. Now you introduce nearly a million people with zero ties to Ares beyond some armored troops kicking their doors in and shoving them into transports.

Now what this means is there is finally a serious crack in the Aresville Utopia. They scooped up criminals, street sam, shadowrunners, you name it during the evacuation and dumped them in the middle of corpo-town USA. Despite the fact sheets my dad tells me that's when Ares lost a bit of its grip on Detroit and finally opened up the city a bit for people not sucking off Ares' teat to make a few nuyen.

• Oh your daddy told you that? Maybe we should have him write this up instead while you go out and play.
  - Slamm-O!
  
  
• I swear if you don't shut your cakehole I'm going to shove my boot so far up your hoop I'll...
  - kN0x
  
  
• Dammmit kids. Don't make me ground you both
  - Bull

Since then it has been more of the same. When the Crash happened Damien Knight's archrival, Lucien Cross died and Ares was able to kneecap its rival CATCo and fatten up its marketshare even more. While Quebec and UCAS aren't exactly on speaking terms Ares was able to poach some of the best and brightest from CATCo...which again caused an influx of anti-Ares population into the mix. Then Chicago 2.0 happened, the crash and all that other fun stuff meant that despite Ares being very successful at a global stage, the nonstop stream of immigrants and refugees has weakened their hold on their own territory. While things are looking great for Damien Knight, Ares was losing its grip...until a few months ago.

Here is where things get interesting, the point where the past meets the present. Ares has been moving assets from all over the world, mainly military assets mind you, back into Detroit. The official announcement is routine maintenance and training and reorganization, the word from the shadows is they're rolling out some new tech upgrades. This means that Ares already nearly omnipresence in the city is going up and up and up. Can't walk a block without smacking into some off-duty Ares troopers looking for a night on the town. Or should I say a "knight" on the town?

• No! No! No!
  -Turbo Bunny
  
  
• Bull, let me ban this drekhead. Seriously what the frag was that?
  -Slamm-O!
  
  
• I liked it...
  -Smiling Bandit
  
  
• I'm seeing a spike in wetwork in Detroit since Knight brought his boys home. All of them senior Ares employees. There is no way Knight lets someone drop that many bodies in his own backyard without him knowing. I think Ares is using this to take out the trash.
  -Riser
  
  
• It's bugs. Ares didn't burn them out of Chicago, he rescued them. Now Ares is a new hive and Detroit will become the new capital of the insect-spirit queen!
  - Plan 9
  
  
• Ordinarily I'd ignore Plan 9 as usual but I've seen some interesting internal mails within Ares about huge disputes between people backed by Damien and the head of Firewatch, Col. Ravenheart. My guess is Ares is experimenting on insect-spirits and Firewatch being the world's premiere anti-bug authority doesn't like a potential outbreak sitting in their own backyard.
  - Glitch

---

Life in the Shadows
-kN0x

Surprising to everyone who doesn't live here, Detroit has a huge shadowrunner scene. Most outsiders would assume that everything that gets done is done by Ares here but the truth is Ares needs deniable assets here the same as they do everywhere and despite them dominating the local market, they aren't the only corpos in town. That being said every mission and job has to factor in the Ares angle. Detroit has a reputation of being the bestest, brightest, safest, ham-jammiest town in the UCAS and Ares will murder anyone who tarnishes that reputation. You can drop bodies left and right, but you have to do it the right way. Nice and clean so the press doesn't get wind and the city can quietly dispose of it afterwards. When it comes to backlash Ares would rather you quietly steal gigs of their corporate data than cause a single explosion that disrupts the nightlife. If you're used to wild running and gunning with explosions and fireballs bombing all around you, expect to get zeroed out by Firewatch real quick. If you can play it cool and quiet and not step on Ares too hard, there are mountains of nuyen to be made. Every corpo in the world has assets here to keep an eye on Ares and every anti-corpo would love to uncover something to make the unflappable Damien Knight frag his pants.

Generally runners fall into a pro-Ares or anti-Ares faction and the two sides rarely interact with one another long term. Ares is too omnipresent to avoid talking about it and there are many runners who have been brainwashed into thinking Ares is "one of the good ones". Let me tell you chummers, if you think Damien Knight has a lower body count than Aztech or Renraku, think again.

• Trust me, the illusion that Ares controls every aspect of Detroit is just propaganda. With all their drones and checkpoints it's mostly just political theater to justify billing the city and UCAS for security contracts. With few exceptions, Detroit security is easier to bypass than Seattle because in Seattle, everyone is expecting the drek to hit the fans. Many people in Detroit cannot even imagine something dangerous happening with Ares HQ looming overhead. That illusion makes it a smuggler's dream.
  -Traveler Jones
  
  
• When it comes to Detroit, assume Ares knows what is going on, they just don't care enough to shut it down. Every Johnson is either an Ares asset or watched closely by Ares. They could crack down on all the runners and fixers that have been thorns in their side but there's no money in that. Better to keep an eye on them and feed them what Ares wants to get out than waste time stomping on cockroaches one at a time.
  - Cosmo
  
  
• The go-ganger scene is wild in Detroit. Between the city's history with cars and having to outrun Ares at every step the gangs of Detroit are crazy even by ganger standards.
  - Turbo Bunny
  
  
• Hold your deck, I'm getting there. Can I guy take a pisser without everyone jumping ahead?
  - kN0x

This message was last edited by the player at 17:34, Wed 06 Oct 2021.

Districts & Locations
- kN0x

Listen I'm not a travel guide. You want museums and tourist traps go check out the Ares approved tourism brochures. I'm here to give you the rundown of where to go and what to do from the shadow's viewpoint.


Detroit Proper
Downtown is the same as any other city. It's where all the money and corpo action is at. The big landmark here is Knight Plaza, the hulking HQ for Ares. It's set up so that almost everywhere in the city you can see that big glowing Ares logo lighting up the sky. Locals use it as a landmark guide, our very own North Star. There's lots of stuff to do and see if you want to see the sights but really all you have to know is this is the heart of Detroit and where you are in relation to Downtown and Ares determines whether you're East Side or West Side Detroit.

Belle Isle
An island between Detroit and Windsor, it's where rich people go to relax. Marinas, zoos and so on. Only thing worth noting is that it's got a lot of coastline and is a nice halfway point between Detroit and Windsor.

Windsor
Windsor used to be part of Canada but when the UCAS formed it became officially part of Detroit. If you're a tourist, you're probably going to Windsor. Built for tourism and nightlife its got casinos, raceways and everything else wageslaves need to blow off a bit of steam.

Dearborn
Dearborn is centered around Ford HQ. While not in the same league as Ares, Ford still has a lot of pull in the area and so Dearborn is like a corpo enclave inside a corpo enclave. Still despite views on the street up in the boardrooms Ford is in very tight with Ares and GM. Can't have actual competition ruining a good oligarchy.

Oakland
Technically the county Detroit is in but anything that isn't part of Detroit or another major city like Dearborn is just viewed as Oakland County territory. Not much to be said here, you've got a few interesting spots like the Pistons stadium


Auburn Blight
Growing year after year as folks abandon the outskirts, the Blight started when Chrysler pulled out their HQ and tanked Auburn Hills with it. Over the last 40 years it has slowly spread like cancer and now encompasses miles and miles of territory northeast of Detroit. Similar to the Barrens in other cities it is off the grid and the play ground of go-gangs and criminals. Honest citizens still toil away but even Knights Errant only goes in rarely and under heavy escort. The upside is it makes for a killer Urban Brawl setting and the Detroit Nightmares have made the playoffs almost every year.

• And they are on track for another great season. Their lineup this year is fragging fantastic. Lucien "Goldie" Macross, Huyana "Widowmaker" Golshani, and of course the ten-ton titan himself Mars Malloy.
  - Slammo-O!
  
  
• Finally something we can agree on.
  - kN0x

Transportation
The main way to get around the city is either car or the People Mover. Cars are big in Detroit, go figure, while the People Mover is an elevated rail system that makes a loop of the downtown area.

Obviously roads are a big way and there are 5 highways that feed into Detroit. For air travel you have two options, Windsor International and Detroit Metro. While both are open to the public, most people use Windsor as Detroit Metro is almost all Ares and other corpo related travel.

• As soon as you see the prices you'll realize Detroit Metro isn't for you. Expect to pay triple the normal rate...unless you get a corporate discount.
  - 2XL

This message was last edited by the player at 12:53, Wed 06 Oct 2021.

The Enemy Within
- kN0x

Alright here's the real paydata. You can go on any travel site to figure out the lay of the land or read through the library to read the history of the area. That's all well and good but for a runner, the only thing that really concerns you is who is going to put a bullet in your brainpan and here is the rundown of the likely suspects that will bury you if you bite it in Detroit.


Knights Errant
I know, you're as shocked as I am that KE is brought up in an write up about Detroit. Knights Errant is the private security company for Ares. They are everywhere in Detroit as most of the city contracts with KE. They aren't technically the only biz in town as other megacorps use their own forces and for the few holdouts who refuse to use KE have a few contracts with Eagle or Centurion. There are no Lone Stars allowed in Detroit.

Leader: Clayton Wilson - ex-CEO of Lone Star before being ousted by his own brother. Not just in charge of Detroit but all of KE as the Exec VP of the company. Not surprising anyone, Clatyon has a hard-on for stealing business from Lone Star and seems to be on a personal crusade to undercut his brother every step of the way.


Hard Corps Security
Ares' Subsidiary focused on cheap security for apartments and stores. Whereas Knights Errant are equivalent to police and SWAT, Hard Corps is Ares' version of mall cops and rent-a-cops. They mostly just look big and stop shoplifters and vandals but they are armed and if you get zeroed by a Hard Corps officer we will make fun of you for years afterwards. Still they exist and if you're doing work in residential blocks and small commercial areas these mall cops might get in your way.

Leader: Lionel Carrell - retired UCAS army as are many Ares executives. Carrell seems content to accept Hard Corps for what they are, cheap low-pay, low-risk security. As far as anyone can tell he isn't pushing for any big initiatives or changes, he is happy to just keep their market share steady and cashing Ares checks.

ACMF
Ares Corporate Military Force are the army for Ares. Rented out to nations to conduct full scale war, Ares has tanks, helicopters, artillery, you name it. While a runner should never end up in conflict against the ACMF by themselves, there are a lot of ACMF assets in the area, especially as Ares is pulling in troops from around the globe for training and upgrades. Right now the city is swarming with off-duty ACMF troops and officers and the warehouses all over the city are full of primo military spec gear just waiting for someone to have the balls to take it off ACMF hands. A military run would set you up for life however it would more than likely leave you dead as the ACMF does not pull any punches when it comes to securing their property. They don't have jails, they just have body bags.
Leader: General James Danforth - Danforth has been put in charge of the ACMF forces stationed in Detroit and is officially overseeing the training and upgrade process. By all accounts Danforth is a perfect company man: Loyal, zealous, and dumb as drek. Word on the street is he is obsessed with loyalty among his troops and could be the source for a lot of the apparent purge that is happening in the Ares ranks, especially in regards to Firewatch.


The Castle
Alright as if Knights Errant on every block wasn't bad enough it turns out that right in the heart of Aresville is a group of rogue KE that feel that even Ares isn't enough justice for everyone they hate. Some reporter reported on them a few years back and traced it to a gang inside the Detroit PD and when Ares took over that gang just set up shop in the new employer with a new name. They like to enact swift and brutal frontier justice on everyone they hate and that list pretty much includes everyone. Metas, immigrants, women...you name it and they will grab them off the streets and dump the body in a ditch and then call it a suicide or natural causes or some other bull drek.
Leader: Detective Charles O'Ryan is the man that gets marched out every time some reporter claims The Castle is active again. He is a senior IA agent in KE and comes out every time to repeat the same line about how there is no evidence that any group like that exists.

• I knew the reporter who covered that, May Sommers. She was a good reporter with a promising career ahead of her. Her family still has a $10,000 reward for any information about her whereabouts.
  - Sunshine
  
  
• The Castle is available for hire if you know how to contact them. Protection, escort, extraction, assassination. If you have the creds, they'll take the job no questions asked.
  - Mr. Bonds
  
  
• Oh great, as if dealing with KE wasn't bad enough now they might be your competitors too.
  - Riser

Detroit Cutters
The Cutters in their hey-day were one of the top gangs in North America. Then their bases in Seattle and Chicago were cut and they have been spiraling ever since. The Detroit Cutters have recently gotten a shot in the arm. A trio of elves have risen to the top of the gang and are whipping them back into shape. Rumor is they are ex-Tir nationals and they have been ramping up both the abilities and the violence coming out of the Cutters over the past year. Already their turf has increased by half and some of the other gangs are talking about forming an alliance to stand against them.

Leader: Dragwade - believed to be some kind of physical adept. Word is he took over the Cutters by killing the existing upper leadership in one bloody night. Six hits executed simultaneously. Cut the head of the gang right off and then showed up the next day and made everyone bend the knee.

• I don't normally stick my nose into this kind of thing but I actually know that guy.  His name isn't Dragwade, it's a title: Draig Waed which means Blood Dragon. He used to be part of the TRC, the Tir's secret police force, as one of their top assassins before disappearing in the wake of some big scandal. There are a lot of rumors but none of them confirmed. Two years later he pops up in UCAS with four disciples with the goal of taking over a gang in north america. He first tried it with the Boston Yardies. Same method: killed their top leaders then asked them to follow him. The Yardies didn't take kindly to it and the aftermath is Drag is down to two disciples and there are no more Boston Yardies.
  - Sounder
  
  
• Wait...that's what happened to them? I saw the leak of the police reports. They were scooping up Yardies in baggies.
  - Hard Exit

The Ancients
The Ancients are everywhere in UCAS and Detroit makes no exception. All-elven go-gang that is highly militant. While the Cutters are the main gang in Detroit, the Ancients run the roads outside the city. The Midwest region used to be based out of Chicago but after the bugs it was moved to Milwaukee however with the Cutters getting aggressive it seems like Bombshell is moving her personal operations out to the Detroit area to keep an eye on things.

• Or to keep a closer eye on Drag. Ex-TRC popping up in your backyard is worth a closer inspection. I'm also curious why Drag didn't approach anyone in the Ancients.
  - Pistons

Leader: Bombshell - she's hot, she's elven, she has an explosive temper. Not much more to say here. She's been running the Midwest region for the Ancienst for over forty years, longer than most gangers have been alive.


Detroit Mafia (Detroit Partnership)
Detroit doesn't have a strong Yakuza or Triad presence so the Mafia is really the only organized crime in town. Hefty kickbacks to local Ares and UCAS officials lets them operate largely unchallenged. They pretty much run the casinos and bars in Windsor now having left the downtown area for the easier money and distance from Ares HQ. As long as they keep things quiet and fill everyone's pockets with nuyen, there is no sign of them slowing down. Even as the Mafia in general struggle, Detroit seems to have it figured out thanks to daddy Damien keeping the asian syndicates at bay.

Leader: Don Roland "The Greek" Stephanopoulos originally reported to the McCaskills out of Milwaukee but about ten years ago the Milwaukee outfit got raided by the feds and while McCaskill avoided jail they lost a lot of power and influence and now The Greek is in charge.


The Fantas
A primarily latino gang, they're not technically a whiz-gang because they are mostly regular gangers but for a small local gang they're throwing around a lot of magic. There are a few hispanic neighborhoods and the Fantas are heavily entrenched there. Rumor is their upper leaders have ties to Aztec.

Leader: Mateo Valdes - a street mage with a penchant for literal fire and brimstone. With his magic he could be a lot more aggressive with the gang than they are so likely Mateo is smarter than one would think as despite their magical arsenal they have kept off of KE's radar.


Daughters of Lilith
An all-female party gang, they don't normally target specific people or businesses, instead it's a matter of "wrong place wrong time." When the Liliths go partying, they leave death and destruction in their wake. What makes them particularly bad news is that a lot of their membership are daughters of prominent corpos looking for a bit of rebellion before joining Ares. While they have no problem shooting you or bashing your brains in if you drop a Lilith chances are you will see their upper-middle class corpo parents on the news the next day crying about the senseless violence followed by your mug as KE's #1 Most Wanted. General consensus is to just "go with the flow" around the Liliths. The gang is full of cliques and high-school drama drek fueled by heavy stimulants laced with combat drugs.

Leader: Lilith. I know, surprising. While most of the gang are late teens, early 20s, Lilith is a middle-aged Orc who seemed to have never outgrown her high school years.

• Lilith's are a lot of fun as long as you can direct their attention. They have the best drugs in the city and daddy's nuyen goes a long way. Just don't get on their bad side or you might end up being hunted through Oakland as a Most Dangerous Game.
  - Shockwave
  
  
• Sounds like you have some personal experience with them?
  - Turbo Bunny
  
  
• A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.
  - Shockwave

Chromeheads
Technically they call themselves the "Ascendants of the Chrome God" but locally they just call them Chromeheads. A gang obsessed with transhumanism and cutting away their flesh for cyberware, they are barely on the edge of cyberpsychosis on a good day. They love to "experiment" with weird upgrades like adding more legs or deforming their bodies to, as they put it, shed away the shackles of humanity. All you need to know is that they are chromed to the gills, completely crazy, and if they capture you they will likely rip out your guts and put in whatever random cyberware they have lying around. They hunt primarily in the Auburn Hills region. Supposedly there aren't that many of them but there are still recent news feeds talking about them ripping through an entire apartment building and leaving behind a horror show. As one would expect they deal heavily in illegal cyberware, and to a lesser extent weapons.

Leader: Morningstar. By all accounts he is officially a cyborg as it is rumored that the only organic piece left to him is his brain. Built like a tank because it is rumored he has actual tank parts grafted to him. He is slow, heavy, stupid, and has speakers blasting his sermons letting everyone know he is coming. Ordinarily he wouldn't be much of a threat but the cybered up zealots that follow his every word are more than enough danger for everyone in Auburn.

• Leaked documents from a Seattle run on the Ares office out there seems to indicate that the original Chromeheads were part of some experimental ACMS program to create cyborg soldiers. They weren't able to solve the psychosis problem and shipped the soldiers out to die but the convoy was ambushed by a go-gang looking to harvest that chrome for the black market. In the battle,  the soldiers escaped and formed their own gang.
  - Glitch

Rompez
This gang is a bit weird so bear with me. When Chicago turned into Bug Capital USA a bunch of gangs were decimated in the process and the survivors formed a coalition under "The Jigsaw Man" as he was called. When refugees flooded into Detroit, Jigsaw Man and his crew, now calling themselves the Rompez, quickly seized control of crime and corruption inside the Ares refugee camps. As the Chicagoans were integrated, the Rompez slowly spread out and although it's been twenty years, Rompez still pop up all over the city. They don't have cohesive territory, instead a random block here or there suddenly is Rompez territory and these guys are nasty. For a gang operating in the heart of Knights Errant they give zero frags and taking down the Jigsaw Man has been priority #1 for every Knights Errant CEO and senior advisor in Detroit...and yet Jigsaw is still going strong.

• I don't want to go the route of Plan 9 but it is fragging weird how bold Rompez are right under Ares nose. They are about as sublte as a troll with a grenade launcher and yet a decade later they still have a lot of influence in the city. I wonder if Jigsaw has some secret ties to Ares. While they are loud and bold they have never done anything explicitly "anti-corpo" during their time in Detroit.
  -Riser
  
  
• Then again they survived Chicago. Might just be more trouble than it is worth to cut them out.
  -Butch
  
  
• Or maybe Damien likes having an auxillary group of expert bug hunters. Firewatch recruits have to come from somewhere...
  -DangerSensei

The Rest of the Rest
As you would imagine there are dozens of lesser gangs and organizations. They're smalltime, usually only controlling a few blocks or businesses but still its important to keep an eye out for them:


This message was last edited by the player at 03:09, Mon 18 Oct 2021.